Tigers starting to rack up SEC honors, as Shane Ray grabs the conference’s defensive player of the week award

Shane Ray is now the fifth Tiger defender to win the SEC’s Defensive Player of the Week award in the last three seasons. He joins SS Kenronte Walker (2012 vs. Arizona State), LB Kentrell Brothers (2013 at Georgia), DE Michael Sam (2013 at Vanderbilt) and CB E.J. Gaines (2013 vs. Texas A&M)…photo/Mizzou Athletics

Missouri junior DE Shane Ray (Kansas City, Mo.) was named the Southeastern Conference Defensive Player of the Week for his big day this past Saturday as he helped lead Mizzou to a 38-10 win over UCF. Ray won the award, as announced tonight by the league office, after recording seven tackles (all solo stops), including a career-best 4.0 tackles for loss, with 2.0 quarterback sacks.

Ray also forced a fumble against the Knights, which led to one of four turnovers forced by the Tiger defense in the second half, as Mizzou extended a 14-10 halftime lead with a dominant second half.

Through three games, Ray’s season total of 7.5 tackles for loss is tops in the nation, and his 5.0 sacks is currently the number-three mark in the NCAA.

He becomes the second Tiger in the last two weeks to win a weekly player of the week award in the SEC, as he joins sophomore QB Maty Mauk, who won the offensive player of the week on September 8th for his play in MU’s win at Toledo.

“It’s a great honor, I’m really excited about receiving this award,” Ray said. “It’s nice to be recognized, I think it means that I’m doing good things and that my team is doing good things. I feel like there’s a lot of guys on this team that deserve recognition, but in the end, we play for each other and we just have to keep working hard to accomplish our goals,” he said.